A network with the aforementioned features is known from P. Cochrane and M. Brain, "Eradicating the Central Office with Coherent Optical Technology", 1988 International Zu/ rich Seminar on Digital Communications: Mapping New Application onto New Technologies (Cat. No. 88 TH 0202-2), pp. 59 to 62.
The transmission capacity of the network is accessible to all subscribers connected to the network. The network is also referred to as "optical ether". Communication links can be established by selection of the wavelengths of the optical transmitters and receivers provided at the subscribers. As a result, the network offers great flexibility.
The topology of the network is either star or ring. In the case of the star topology, the subscriber connecting points are at the ends of the optical waveguides. At the nodes of the network there are passive power dividers, commonly referred to in the literature as "star couplers", where a great number of optical waveguides are interconnected. As a result, various reflections of optical signals occur during their propagation through the network, so that great engineering efforts are required at the subscribers to eliminate undesired or interfering information. Another disadvantage is that the reliability and quality of the information transmission in the network depends very strongly on the quality of the few star couplers. A single star coupler which is not functioning or not functioning properly will thus degrade the performance of a great number of communication links. In addition, star couplers generally have the disadvantage of severely attenuating optical signals.